Tag: Anxiety

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The Anxiety Cure (Psalms 3-4)

In 2017, I began a journal of my anxiety. I wanted to think through what was really going on in my head. So, every time I got upset or started to worry too much, I wrote down what I was experiencing. It was a revelation.

I was anxious over all sorts of things. I had anxiety because people didn’t agree with me. I had anxiety because I played Dutch Blitz very badly. I had anxiety because I wanted to watch a movie, and I couldn’t find two hours to do it in. I had anxiety because other people had anxiety about changes in the church. I had anxiety because I was giving advice, and I noticed resistance to that advice. The list could go on and on.

One thing that amazed was how many things in my life caused me anxiety. I felt threats all around me. I suspect that I am not particularly weird in this. I think we all deal with anxiety more than we tend to think. It’s part of the human situation. We see all kinds of issues. We have a limited capacity to deal with them. Anxiety is the result of that gap.

But why does it matter that we have anxiety? What is really the big deal? It keeps us from thinking about our duties. It saps our energy from the good goals we could and should be pursuing. It often hurts our relationships because it leads us to attack others or withdraw from others wrongfully. It affects our health because of the way we deal with our anxiety. One of those areas is sleep. Sometimes anxiety makes us want to avoid our problems and just sleep all the time. At other times, it keeps us all night and robs us of sleep.

In Psalms 3 and 4, the psalmist expresses his anxiety over enemies, the ungodly, and the future. “Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!” (3:1). “Many, Lord, are asking, ‘Who will bring us prosperity?'” (Psalm 4:6). What is he going to do about it?

Psalms 3 and 4 give us the anxiety cure. We are not meant to deal with anxiety in ourselves. We were meant to take it to God. Psalms 3 and 4 are prayers to God in the midst of anxiety. They point us to the fact that in our anxiety, we should go to God and seek from Him the things that we need. Whenever we struggle, we are not without resource, we can go to God!

Not only is God able to deal with our problem, the very act of praying helps us with our anxiety. In the midst of our anxiety, we tend to see only our problem. However, prayer enables us to see not only our problem but also the God who is over the problem and is for us. David saw the enemies that were opposing him, but when he went to God in prayer. There, He saw the Lord: “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high” (Psalm 3:3).

The result of all this was that David experienced peace. He did not let anxiety consume him because he unburdened himself before the Lord. His peace is described in terms of sleep. “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side” (Psalm 3:5–6). “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8).

In an anxious world, we are not without resource. We can go to God in prayer with confidence because Jesus has opened the way. The result will be that we will see not just the problem but the God above them who has them completely under his control. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

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Living Open-Hearted (Psalm 112)

[Listen to an audio version here]

When I was in Egypt, I saw over and over again a spirit of generosity that really surprised me. Everywhere I went I had experiences like the ones I had in a restaurant one night. A guy had on a Star Wars shirt, and I really liked it. I told him so. Without any hesitation, he replied, you can have it, if it fits you. This was the sort of response I got everywhere.

Here’s another example. After going to two restaurants, I told our tour manager, this is just too much food. We cannot eat all of this. We can’t even come close! Here’s what he suggested. After you eat, he said, ask for a box. Then, ask them to give it to someone who needs this food or have your tour guide help you give it to someone in need. That way, you will bless someone who needs it, and it will help you build a relationship with the people who see you give.

Everywhere I went, I found this same sort of attitude. It was not just giving to the poor. It was welcoming people with gladness. It was truly valuing people. I came up with a name for this type of living. I call it open-hearted living.

Of course, as I reflected on what I saw, my mind went to many passages in the Scriptures. For example, Jesus said, “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Mt. 5:42). It’s not easy to live open-hearted. We get wrapped up in our own activities. We have anxiety over our own things. We get preoccupied with our own problems.

So, here is the question I kept asking myself, how do we find the resources that will enable us to live in an open-hearted way toward others? How can we keep giving, when others don’t give to us? How can we remain gracious when times are tough? What resources do we have to enable us to show kindness when others are unkind? That’s the question that I think this Psalm answers for us. Let’s consider this answer in four steps. First, let’s consider the reaction that we should have to those around us. Second, let’s look at the resources we have to react that way. Third, we’ll look at how we should respond to the resources available to us. Finally, we will look at the amazing results that come from using this resource.

Our Reaction to Those Around Us
How does the blessed man live in relationship to those around him? He is a giver. “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor” (Psalm 112:9). The word used here for “freely scattered” indicates a wide variety and large quantity of gifts. It involves money and material resources but also encouragement, friendship, and emotional support as well.

Let me note on the side here that the person who is truly open-hearted is not only a good giver. He is a good receiver. You build community not only by giving to others, but you also build community by allowing others to do you good. In other words, you build community not only by loving but also by letting others show love to you. Continue reading “Living Open-Hearted (Psalm 112)”

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Finding Joy in the Midst of Life’s Anxieties (Habakkuk)

[Listen to an audio version here]

A few years ago, my daughters bought a couple of guinea pigs. One thing I noticed about these guinea pigs is that they were filled with anxiety. They would run into their homes at the slightest outside movement. If you tried to pet them, they would freak out. It was understandable, though. They are little creatures in a big world. There are a lot of animals that would like to eat them. So, their anxious system helps protect them.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized, we are a lot like guinea pigs. We are ready to run at the slightest sign of danger, whether real or not. We have a lot of anxiety. There’s good reason to have anxiety. We are small in a big world. There are a lot of dangers. There are many things we can’t control that affect our well-being. However, it’s worse for us. Our imagination is much greater than that of guinea pigs. We can see and imagine all sorts of threats that they would never think about.

Here’s the problem. Our anxieties can help us avoid threats, but they can also become debilitating. In the face of overwhelming circumstances, we can lose all hope. Joy can disappear. We can settle into bitterness and become enslaved to worry. So, how do we work through the struggle and find a joy that arises from hope? That is the message that the prophet Habakkuk has for us. In this prophecy, we have a glimpse of how Habakkuk struggled with anxiety over the events in his nation. In the end, he came to a place of joy. How did he find it? That’s what we will consider in this passage. We will consider this in three steps, the problems Habakkuk sees, the vision Habakkuk sees, and the joy Habakkuk finds.

The Problems Habakkuk Sees
Habakkuk was a prophet in the southern kingdom of the Jews, Judah. He was concerned about what he saw there.

How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted (1:2–4).

Do you ever cry out like that? Do you ever look at what is happening in your nation and cry out for justice? That’s what Habakkuk was doing. Continue reading “Finding Joy in the Midst of Life’s Anxieties (Habakkuk)”

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Pride, Anxiety, and Injustice (Genesis 16, Part 3)

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Where does injustice come from? Humans can treat each other with astonishing cruelty, far outstripping even the most vicious animals. How does it come about that humans behave so unjustly?

When we see injustice, it’s easy to simply look at its perpetrators as evil. Now, don’t get me wrong. Injustice is evil. We should condemn it. However, we also need to seek to understand it.

Injustice is born not only out of pride but also anxiety. We worry about our position, our prestige, or our provision. We make ourselves bigger and claim more for ourselves than is due in order to maintain it.

It’s easier to see how this occurs on a large scale. Why did the United States invade two nations in the early 21st century? Was it not driven out of anxiety over terrorism? Now, you can debate whether those wars were just or not, but the point is that this action took place in the context of anxiety.

Why is China so concerned about a few rocks in the South China Sea? Is it not at least partly anxiety over their position and prestige? People can be just as anxious about maintaining their prestige as they are about maintaining their provision.

In the United States, why did slavery exist? It was anxiety over being able to maintain a particular way of life. The owners became dependent on it in order to maintain their prestige as a sort of American nobility. They feared letting it go because they feared losing that prestige, prosperity, and position. Booker T. Washington wisely noted, “Having once got its tentacles fastened on to the economic and social life of the Republic, it was no easy matter for the country to relieve itself of the institution.”

If you view injustice from this lens, it makes a lot more sense of what we see in the world. Injustice is worthy of condemnation but also of some compassion in light of the challenging position nations and individuals find themselves in.

Now, I want to try to consider how this manifests itself in daily life through this text, Genesis 16. Remember, the Bible reveals the solution to sin but in order to enable us to understand that solution, it also helps us understand sin itself. It does this so that we can repent and find healing, grace, and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

So, let’s consider what this passage teaches us about sin from the life of Hagar, Sarah, and Abraham.

Hagar
We have already explained Hagar’s anxiety and pride. Hagar’s anxiety was that she would not be seen, that she was insignificant. Once she was “seen,” she immediately took this blessing and made it bigger than it was. “When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress” (Gen. 16:4b). That is a perfect example of pride. We take something that we have that is good, make it more important or valuable than it is, and use it to exalt ourselves above others.

If you ask people how much something is worth, they will give you one answer. If they own the very same thing, and you ask them how much it is worth, then they will say it is worth much more. We tend to value everything more highly if it is “ours.”

And what does this lead Hagar to do? What she gives to herself, she takes away from Sarah. She fails to give her the respect and honor that is due her. Instead, she looks down on her with contempt.

The most basic justice we owe each other is respect. When our anxiety goes up and our pride goes up, respect often gets thrown out the window. That’s why Peter says, “Show proper respect to everyone” (1 Pet. 2:17a). Even when we are telling people why we believe in Christ, we must do this with “gentleness and respect.” Peter says.

How do we show respect to people we struggle with? One, we can honor their basic humanity. Two, if they are believers, we can honor their faith. Three, we can relate to them with curiosity rather than a conclusion. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Those are the virtues of honor and respect.

Patterson, Grenny, Macmillan, and Switzler in their excellent book Crucial Conversations, note that in order for productive conversations to take place, you need two things: safety and respect. This is basically “gentleness and respect.” These authors note that when safety and respect break down, the ability to have a productive conversation breaks down. And that’s exactly what happens here.

Sarah
Remember that Sarah is already anxious in this passage. She is understandably anxious about not having borne a child for Abraham. To relieve her anxiety, she chooses a common but unjust relief for that anxiety: giving her slave to her husband to have a child through her.

There is no doubt, though, that when Hagar became pregnant, she became very anxious about the situation. When Sarah’s anxiety up, Hagar’s respect also broke down. The result was that Sarah’s anxiety went way up, and she relieved her anxiety in a common from: attack.

Listen very carefully to what she says, “Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me'” (Gen. 16:5). “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering” (Gen. 16:5).

Was Sarah right? In one sense, yes. Abraham was responsible. He had not taken leadership when he should have.

On the other hand, this clearly omitted a key point, namely, that she originated the idea and strongly urged it upon her husband. So, there’s something very important here. When things go wrong, our tendency is to blame others. This began with our first parents. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. Both attempts to blame had some justice but omitted their own part in it.

This is the dissolution that takes place when we employ the pride solution to our anxiety. It leads to recrimination. It separates people and arms them for war, as it were.

But there is something else here. It’s so hard for us to deal with the abstract problems of life like loneliness, insecurity, and meaninglessness, that we try to make it concrete by blaming others for it. Think of Sarah’s issues. They are big, and to some degree, unsolvable. It makes it a lot easier to blame Abraham.

And let me tell you that there is nothing more common than this in life. We feel the anxiety of life, but it’s hard to articulate that life is just hard. So, we bring it down to our level by blaming Democrats or Republicans or Donald Trump or immigrants or China or whomever. In our daily lives, we blame our parents, our spouses, our children, our neighbors, our friends, our town, our church, our pastor, our congregation, or anyone else.

I know the power of this from my own experience. I admit that when things go wrong, I will blame my wife, even if she had nothing to do with it. I know I do this. I’ve worked hard not to do this, but it’s astonishing how readily my mind goes there when my anxiety goes up. I even know it’s a lie. There’s a part of me that wants to believe it. It’s powerful because it relieves the anxiety. Our whole body starts working towards it because it naturally tends to move us toward that which makes us feel better.

Allow me to extend this out a little bit further through a common example. Loneliness is an existential problem. It is basic to existence. However, in our society, loneliness is a bigger problem than usual because of the breakdown of so many common forms of interaction, including just walking places.

Now, what happens when our anxiety goes up, and we begin to feel like we are lonely? We tend to blame our family, our community, or our church. “These people,” we say, “are just not friendly.” Take note. That might be true to a degree. It’s not always easy to break into a community.

But let’s also notice something else. Loneliness is not a problem people can really solve for us. It’s an existential problem. It’s a problem that is not wholly in any community. The community may be at fault to a degree, but we rarely ask the question, how hard have I worked to build relationships? Relationships take work! That is a more accurate view of the matter, but when anxiety goes up, all that goes out the window. We respond in pride and injustice like Sarah did, blaming others.

Abraham
By now, we have a strong sense of what Abraham is going to do. He is going to avoid the problem and distance from it. He is going to be passive where he should have been active.

How does he respond? “‘Your slave is in your hands,’ Abram said. ‘Do with her whatever you think best.’ Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her” (Gen. 16:6).

Abraham refused to take leadership and allowed Sarah to vent her anxiety and frustration on Hagar. It was wrong for him to sleep with her, but it was also wrong to allow her to be mistreated.

Standing up for just treatment of others is not always easy. Treating others unjustly may relieve the anxiety of a powerful person in our life. When that happens, it will cost us something to stand for justice. So, we need what Abraham lacked, courage. However, Abraham had developed a pattern of dealing with anxiety by avoiding the problem. When the family got tense, it was all too easy to acquiesce in injustice.

The result was not only that Hagar fled. You will also notice that Abraham and Sarah’s choices would affect the generations. When God tells Hagar that she will have a child, here is what He says about this child, “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (Gen. 16:12). The pride and anxiety in this family will reverberate through the generations.

Conclusion
That’s a pretty bleak picture, but it’s not the end of the chapter. Even though we have looked at length at the problem of sin in this chapter, this is not primarily what the chapter is about. What happens to turn back the disruption and dissolution of this chapter? God shows up.

In the fist half of the chapter, God is nowhere to be seen. It’s all about the humans and what they do. It’s almost as if God doesn’t exist. Then, at the lowest point, when everything is falling apart, God shows up. We’ll consider that in more detail next week.

For now, note that this is our great hope. God shows up. The Son of God comes in human form and becomes a part of the human family to heal the human family and all our individual families. Pride, anxiety, and injustice don’t have to be the last word. God’s grace gets the final word. God sees us, and when we see the God who sees us above our problems, that makes all the difference. Amen.

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The Anxiety in Sin (Genesis 16, Part 1)

[Listen to an audio version of this post here]

Where do the basic problems of society come from? Certainly there are difficult challenges that have to be overcome to justly feed, clothe, and shelter the people of a nation.

However, people can be fed, clothed, and sheltered and have many pleasures available to them and still be miserable. Families still break apart. Neighbors still look at each other with suspicion. People still suffer from depression, anxiety, bitterness, and substance abuse. So, where does all this come from?

According to the Bible, the basic problem is a disruption in our relationship with God. It is the human attempt to place oneself at the center rather than submitting to God as the center of the universe and Lord of all. It is sin.

The Bible not only teaches us the solution to sin. It teaches us about sin itself. It helps us understand our fallen condition so that we can repent, that is, turn from sin and back to God and find healing and redemption through the death and resurrection of Christ.

The Bible teaches that sin is complex. It involves many factors. It does so through numerous historical accounts or stories and through numerous explanations. This month, we are going to look at one of them. It is the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar. It began with a plausible choice, but it ended with severe disruption of the family system. We will see in this series how sin works, how it affected this family, and how we can find deliverance from sin.

Here is a basic outline. Sin is occasioned by but not caused by anxiety, our emotional response to the basic problems of reality. In the face of anxiety, we can seek our own solution or trust God. When we seek our own solution, then we are involved in pride. The result is dissolution and disruption in our lives and relationships. The counter-measure to pride is when we see the God who sees us and find our relationship with God restored through His favor offered freely to us in Jesus Christ.

In this sermon, we will consider anxiety as the occasion for sin.

Sarah
“She had borne him no children.” How many people suffer with an inability to have children? Not everyone wants to have children, but, for those who do, they enter into marriage with a vision of what their life will be. They will get married, they will have children, they will watch them grow up, and they will see their children moving out and eventually having children of their own.

Then, things turn out differently. At first, they may think that children are just not coming right away. Then, the years go by. They visit doctors to no avail. Time passes, tears fall, and the dream fades away.

In the meantime, they watch all around them, and they see their friends. They see the births, the birthday parties, the first day of school, the awards, the sports, and on and on. They try to be happy for their friends, but each time they see the good their friend enjoys, it is like a little dagger thrust into their soul.

That’s the situation that Sarah faced. “She had borne him no children.” The years went by, and she had borne him no children.

Remember that Sarah lived in a society in which having children was even more important for a woman’s status than it is in our own. Children were not merely a good to be enjoyed, they were often essential for the economic well-being and status of the family. To lack them was a threat to the family’s existence and prosperity.

Abraham and Sarah also had more reason to be concerned. God had promised Abraham that He would bless the entire world through his seed. But no children had come. They had to wait and wait and wait and wait and wait . . . That had been more than 10 years earlier. When would the promised child come?

It’s not surprising that in light of all this that Sarah came up with a solution to resolve her anxiety over childlessness. She would use a method that was very common in her day. We have many records of just such a solution being employed in the ancient world. She would give Abraham her slave Hagar. Abraham would sleep with her, and Sarah would have a son through Hagar that would be hers.

It was a common solution for the time. It was what many people they knew no doubt had done. It made sense in some ways. But it was contrary to God’s law for marriage, and, as the rest of the passage shows, it totally disrupted the household and the relationships in it.

Abraham
Up to this point, we have only spoken about Sarah. But what about Abraham? What was his role in all of this? “Abram agreed to what Sarai said” (Gen. 16:2).

Abraham was passive. He did not try to solve the problem. He simply goes along with what Sarah suggests. We might say that he distances himself from the problem.

If you read the life of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you will see that passivity is their common response to anxiety. Abraham gives up Sarah to the King of Egypt to avoid their problems. Isaac does the same when they encounter the Philistines. Rebekah says to send Jacob to her brother, and Isaac simply goes along with it. Jacob’s wives tell him to sleep with their slaves, and he does so. He seeks solace for the death of his wife in his son Joseph and refuses to take leadership in the family. His daughter is violated, and he does nothing to redress the issue so that his sons act to do something instead. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were problem avoiders. That was their response to anxiety. They generally went along with whatever anyone else suggested. They distance. That is their response.

But let’s consider Abraham a little more carefully. Think of his situation. No doubt, he struggled with not having a son. However, he had watched his wife struggle even more. He knew how much she suffered. He knew how anxious it made her. He knew her tears and pain.

So, after all that time, when his wife made the suggestion, he responded by passively acquiescing. She firmly believed that this would solve the problem and relieve her anxiety. How could he refuse? Have you ever seen someone really upset? Then, they suggest something that will help them. You may not agree, but it’s hard to say, “no.” This happens all the time in our lives. Someone feels pain, and they think that something will relieve it. We don’t like their pain, and so we go along with it.

Beyond this, Abraham had no doubt seen innumerable examples of this very method for getting children. People get children from their slaves all the time, he might have reasoned. He might have seen times where this worked out with less problems.

He also knew that God had promised to make a nation of his descendants, but had He promised that Sarah would be the one who would bear the son for him? Perhaps there was another way. After all, consider the circumstances. Sarah was getting old. She may not be able to have children. Perhaps Sarah was right. That’s how Abraham might have approached the situation.

The plan was reasonable. It seemed to solve the problem. However, it was contrary to God’s law, and it brought severe disruption to the family.

What We Learn About Sin & the World’s Problems
1. Anxiety is not sin but it provides a temptation to sin. It is Sarah’s anxiety over her situation that leads her to sin. There was nothing wrong with concern over the situation. The question is, what would she do with it?

As you look throughout the Bible, consider carefully how it presents sin. You will see that it begins with anxiety over a threatening situation.

You can see this throughout Genesis. Eve saw the greatness that she could have and chose the forbidden fruit in order to solve it. After the flood, the people feared being scattered and sought to build a tower that would reach heaven. Isaac feared for his life and so lied about his relationship with his wife. Joseph’s brothers had anxiety over their relationship with their father and they let it fill them with hatred that sold their brother into slavery.

You can see this in the book of Exodus. The Pharaoh feared the threat from the Jewish people, and he enslaved them. The Israelites lacked water and food, and they complained in unbelief against God and Moses for leading them out of Egypt. Moses took too long on Mount Sinai. They had to wait and wait and wait . . . and so they built a golden calf that would lead them as their god. Anxiety provides a temptation to sin.

2. Sin is worthy of blame but also compassion. How is it that we can condemn sin and have compassion on sinners? Because there is pride in sin, but there is also anxiety in sin. Anxiety is an emotional response to the basic challenges of life that we all experience. Sinful pride is a wrong solution to the basic problems of life. However, we can have compassion on people like Sarah because they are dealing with very difficult issues, and it is hard. So, we should try to see the pride and the anxiety in sin so can properly condemn the sin and have compassion on the sinner.

3. Anxiety can lead us to want to control things in a sinful way. This manifests itself first of all in the fact that we focus on our own efforts rather than seeking God. It’s not to say we should be passive, but a righteous person approaches problems with constant dependence on God. I have often sinned in this way. I find myself working on a problem as if it all depended on me. I have often found myself well into a problem and then realized, “I should seek God for help on this.” I’m still a long way from where I should be.

What are other ways this manifests itself? How often do we seek to control others when we feel anxious about a situation? How often do we lash out at other people when we feel anxious or upset? How often have we made quick decisions that really were more designed to relieve our anxiety than being what is best? We so often want to do something that will help us feel in control. We sacrifice our own standards because we want to get on top of things. These are the sorts of temptations to sin.

The pandemic has unmasked our own sinful attempts to control things. We can do this by embracing wishful thinking that either says all this will just disappear or that if we simply embrace “science,” we can master it. We try to take control by blaming someone for this problem, whether it’s China, Donald Trump, or Bill Gates.

Conspiracy theories are simply a common human way (on all sides) of trying to make difficulties more understandable. They have a certain plausibility, but they involve jumps in our reasoning that we take because they fit our already preconceived notions. It’s interesting that immediately after this presidential election and the last election that both sides immediately claimed that the election was stolen. Both were adept in seeing the implausible jumps in reasoning that the other side made. Both were completely blind to their own. It’s a human problem. It’s rooted in our desire to be in control rather than trusting God.

4. Anxiety tempts us to sin through passivity as well as activity. It’s easy for us to see the sin of Karen. It’s not as easy to see the sin of the passive Abraham. Adam’s sin was passivity in acquiescing to his wife, and so was Abraham’s. In the face of anxiety, we can fight, but we can also flee or freeze.

So, when our anxiety is up, we should also watch out for passivity. Here the error is the reverse of the last one. In Sarah’s case, she was trying to control things that she couldn’t. In Abraham’s case, he wasn’t controlling things that he could. That was his sin. His anxiety lead him to a sinful passivity and distancing.

A friend of mine and I were talking about what happened last spring. He told me about the worship leader in his church who simply ghosted him. He just stopped communicating with him. No good-bye. No arrangements for his duties. He just ghosted him and stopped responding. This was not because the worship leader had thought clearly about how he should react. It was just an emotional reaction routed in the overwhelming nature of what was happening.

Do you find this happening to you? Do you find yourself going to silence when thing get tough? Do you find yourself abandoning your duties? Do you find yourself running to things that will enable you to escape such as food, alcohol, or sex? If so, you should consider whether you are trying to deal with the challenges of life in a sinful way. In a way, this is just as much an attempt to control the world without God. It is making your world smaller instead of trying to control the big world out there.

So, what are humans to do? They have two possibilities. They can try to be the source of their own security, or they can trust God. They can see the God who sees them. In the midst of our anxiety, God shows up and assures of His love. That’s the big picture of history. Christ sees us and comes into the world and dies for our sins and rises again. This is a foundation by which we can respond to the anxieties of life. It is a perfect solution to the anxieties of the world, not by eliminating all problems but by trusting the God who has them all in His hand. In this way, we can let go of trying to control what we can’t, control what God has put in our power, and leave the rest to the Father who loves us and has given His Son for us and so will not fail to give us all other things as well. Amen.

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The Restoration of Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:1–20)

[Listen to an audio version of this sermon here]

As we begin a new year, it’s easy to look back and see our failures. We may look back and see that we’ve really blown it. We may look back and find that we’ve wasted so much time or even done worthless or evil things. How do we deal with the guilt and sense of less? More importantly, how do we move forward and begin moving in the right direction? That’s what the Bible is all about! Today, we consider the story of Manasseh who lived 2,600 years ago. His story can still encourage us and empower us to move forward from wherever we are.

Two Key Background Notes
There are two important things to note in order to understand King Manasseh’s story. The first is that he came from good stock. His father was Hezekiah. He was one of the best kings Israel or Judah ever had. 2 Kings 18:5 tells us, “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.” He removed the idols. He restored the temple worship. He celebrated the Passover. He led the people back to the Lord. He trusted the Lord in all things. He worked diligently for the justice and defense of the people. There was no king quite like him.

The second thing was the Assyrian threat. The nation of Assyria formed an empire that conquered the nations around them and brutally subjugated them to its will. This was the first of a series of empires in the Middle East: Assyria then Babylon then Persia then Greece and finally Rome.

Hezekiah had to deal with the Assyrian threat. At one point, Jerusalem was surrounded by a huge Assyrian army. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. The Lord sent an angel to wipe out much of the Assyrian army. The Assyrian king, Sennacharib returned to Nineveh in disgrace, and two of his sons killed him.

The key thing I want you to note here is that Hezekiah lived in a very anxious time in which his life and kingdom was threatened. Anxiety is not in itself sin. It is the emotion that leads us to prepare for threats. The question is what we do with it? Do we seek the Lord, or do we seek our own solution? We seek our own solution to anxiety in two ways. We either withdraw from life or press forward to find our own solution without seeking God. So, the question that confronts us here is, what do we do with the challenges of life? What do we do with the anxiety of life? Do we seek to solve it ourselves or go to God with it?

The question for Hezekiah was, what would he do in this anxious time? Would he turn to his own strength? Would he seek out the gods of the nations around him? Would he seek the Lord? Would he rely on his God?

Hezekiah let his anxiety lift his heart to the Lord. In Hezekiah’s case, he responded to anxiety by seeking the God of his ancestors. In this way, he prospered.

Manasseh’s Awful Reign
The situation was very much the same when Manasseh took the throne. Assyria still threatened. Anxiety was still high. The question is, what would Manasseh do with it?

Whereas Hezekiah was one of the best kings, Manasseh was one of the worst. Listen to all the things that he did.

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. . . . He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.

He took the image he had made and put it in God’s temple . . . (2 Chronicles 33:2–4, 6–7).

In other words, he was really bad. The result of his bad leadership and example was that he led his nation into evil: “Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites” (2 Chron. 33:9). Things were getting very bad in Judah.

God did not let all this go without a response. “The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention” (2 Chron. 33:10). They added to all their sins the sin of rejecting God’s warnings.

Now, I want you to notice something here. Manasseh did the wrong things, terrible things. But why did he do all this? He was anxious about the Assyrian threat. He felt desperation to act based on the difficulty of his situation. While no doubt Manasseh should be condemned, there is also something that should elicit our compassion. Just like us, he was facing a very difficult situation. He was anxious. The question was, what would he do with this anxiety? He chose the wrong things in the extreme.

This year has been an anxious time, and this year promises more of the same. What will we do with it? Will we drown ourselves in things that make us escape from it all? Will we furiously try to solve things by our own power? Or, will we bring it before the Lord? This challenge is all based on our ability to see the big picture but also our inability to change most of it. We have to trust the Lord and respond in faith and then work out of that faith where God has put us. That is the proper response to anxious times.

Manasseh’s Wonderful Restoration
In spite of all he did to escape the Assyrian threat, seeking all sorts of gods and illicit guidance, what he feared finally fell upon him. “So the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon” (2 Chron. 33:12). Assyria came in and captured him, most likely for not honoring them in the way they thought Manasseh should.

At this point, Manasseh finally listened. “In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors” (2 Chron. 33:12). He gave up on doing it himself and finding his own solution. He returned and sought the God of his fathers. His deep distress finally lifted him up to the Lord.

The Lord heard Manasseh in prison. “And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea” (2 Chron. 33:13a). God is always ready to move toward those who move toward Him. He is the gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love.

That’s why we should be encouraged. Whatever we’ve done, wherever we’ve been, however much we’ve failed, “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (Is. 55:7). We should not let our past failures keep us from hope. The door is always open. God is ready to receive us.

Now, Manasseh had let the altar of the Lord deteriorate, but the altar of the Lord always pointed to the fact that whatever Israel or an Isrealite had done, there was atonement and forgiveness. That altar pointed forward to the cross. As often as we see our failures, we need to see the cross of Christ. It always beckons us to return, to confess our sins, and to find forgiveness and healing. Come unto me, whoever you are, wherever you are, Jesus says.

But this message should not only encourage us concerning ourselves. It should also encourage us as we think about other people. We all have those people who are Manassehs in our lives, people who knew the Lord and his ways but walked away from it. People who have gone in the totally wrong direction and need to return to the Lord. Let us not give up on them, and let us not give up praying for them.

After this, God “brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God” (2 Chron. 33:13b). God brought a great restoration in the life of Manasseh.

The restoration not only brought him back physically. It brought him back to where he needed to be in his heart. He started doing the right things. He began to do his duty as king. “Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it, and told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel” (2 Chron. 33:16). He led the people in the right way.

And that’s what we can do, too. If we’ve been doing the wrong things, we don’t need to stay there. We can turn around. We need to turn the Lord and, then, by His grace, start doing the right things. That’s repentance.

What have you left undone that God is calling you to return to? Don’t let the past failures burden you. God is a God who restores. Go to Him and find a God who is gracious and compassionate. Then, go in his power to do what God has called you to do. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. Let all who seek the Lord be encouraged, for all those who seek will find Him. That’s the glorious lesson we can learn from King Manasseh. Amen.

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He Fills the Hungry with Good Things (A Sermon on Luke 1:39–56)

[Listen to an audio version here]

“Joy to the world!” I can’t hear those words without hearing Clark Griswold singing them as he flips the switch that will turn his house into a joyful luminous display for the entire neighborhood. Only it doesn’t. The lights don’t come on! And that’s what this year has been like. We flip the switch, but the joy doesn’t come!

2020 has shown us that we need to build our joy on a better foundation. Many things on which we relied for joy have been altered or removed. The result is greater anxiety and frustration or even depression or worse. How can we find a foundation for joy that can weather the storms of a year like 2020?

God has an answer for that: Christmas. Christmas is all about joy. It is about a source of joy that transcends all our circumstances.

A month ago, My Dad sent me the Advent resources of the Wesleyan Church. The first item was a banner, and it had the words from that Christmas classic, “O Holy Night”: “The Weary World Rejoices.” I thought, “Wow! They really captured the sentiment of Christmas this year!”

In the next three sermons, I want you to see how Christmas provides a foundation for joy that the world cannot take away. I want to tell you why a weary world can rejoice. I also want you to see how we can make that joy a greater part of our lives all year long. In Mary’s encounter with Elizabeth, we discover the joy that Christmas brings.

Mary’s Doubts
There is a similarity between Mary and Zechariah in Luke 1. They both encounter an angel. They both did not expect a child. They both respond to the angel’s birth announcement with a question.

In the account of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, his question is an expression of doubt. The result is that he is unable to speak until the child is born.

The angel told Mary that she would conceive and give birth to a son. I also think Mary has some doubts and apprehensions. She responded with words similar to those of Zechariah: “‘How will this be,’” Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?'” (Luke 1:34). Her first response was a question, not rejoicing.

After she thought about it, she might have had a great deal of anxiety about the situation. After all, being pregnant without being married in that society was no minor problem. Her society would have rejected her and shamed her. Mary’s situation would have been very difficult, if not dangerous. And, what would her fiancé think?

These fears came to fruition based on what we read in Matthew 1. Joseph, upon learning of Mary’s pregnancy, resolved to end their engagement. It took a visit from another angel to convince Joseph that what Mary said about her pregnancy was true.

So, it is not surprising that her response to the angel is rather muted. “‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled'” (Luke 1:38).

We should not underestimate the fears and apprehensions that Mary would have faced. The announcement of the angel did not lead Mary to a firm confidence that God would fill her with good things. The announcement did not lead her to rejoice. Instead, it may very well have caused greater anxiety.

And where are you, this morning? Are you filled with anxiety? Have you lost your confidence that God will fill you with good things? If so, you are not alone. Every saint who has experienced the triumph of assurance has had to first do battle with the anxiety of uncertainty. Life is hard, and it is a struggle. We face many challenges to living a good and joyful life of service to the world. It will only come after many experiences of God’s grace and the ensuing struggle to make it part of our hearts and lives. Anyone who tells you otherwise is misled and misleading.

Elizabeth’s Assurance
But God did not leave his maidservant in this position. After she heard this announcement, she went to Judea to the home of Elizabeth, a relative of hers.

She greeted Elizabeth, and the baby, John the Baptist, leaped in her womb for joy. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she said:

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! (Luke 1:42–45).

God gave Mary this miraculous confirmation of His word. The angel had spoken, but the face and words of Elizabeth and the baby John the Baptist leaping confirmed it in a powerful way. It confirmed the truth that God was going to fill Mary with good things and through her the whole world!

And that’s what Christmas is all about. It is about the transcendent God breaking into the world in a way that will cause joy for all people. The joy of Christmas reminds us that there is an assurance of good things beyond the touch of the world. It is a joy that goes beyond all that is in us and all that is in the world that would cause us to doubt it.

That’s the sort of assurance that Elizabeth gave Mary. I want you to notice something that I never noticed until I started preparing this sermon. Mary’s response to the angel is one of faith but it is not really one of joy. It is only after she encounters Elizabeth that she is filled with joy.

And this demonstrates the role that we can play in each other’s lives. We can know of the miraculous work of God, but we often doubt that God will fill us with good things. When we speak to each other of the good news of God’s grace and goodness, then we can help each other to rejoice in God our Savior. We need to share our experiences of God’s love and joy with each other. That is also a big part of the Christmas story, sharing God’s love with one another!

Mary’s Song
What is it that keeps us from joy? It is the stories that we tell ourselves. The stories that we tell ourselves shape our emotions.

Here are some of our storylines. No one cares about me. Evil always triumphs. I don’t get to and won’t get to enjoy good things. I don’t have support. Have you told yourself any of these stories this year? I know have. Many times. And these are the stories that rob us of joy.

What Mary did was tell herself a different story. That’s what her song is all about. Instead of “no one cares about me,” she says, “he has been mindful of me” (Luke 1:48). Instead of “evil always triumphs,” she says, “he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts” (Luke 1:51). Instead of “I don’t and won’t experience good,” she says, “He has filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53). Instead of “I don’t have support,” she says, “He has helped his servant Israel” (Luke 1:54). It is the clear sight of these promises that lead her to say, “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46).

Those storylines have the power to change the way we view all of life. If we can get different stories into our heads, we will start to feel joy. I want to tell you, though, that this does not come easy. The old stories readily dominate our heads and hearts, especially when our anxiety goes up. We have to battle for joy.

That’s why Mary puts it into a song. It helps her to remember. In order for something to become a part of our hearts and lives, it has to be repeated over and over again. It has to go deeply into our hearts and minds through constant communion with it. It has to be applied to new situations. It’s not enough to learn and hear it once. You’ve got to make it part of you through meditation. That’s why the Bible says to meditate and not simply to read. Memorizing and songs can help us change the way we think about the world. They can get the messages into our hearts that will give us the joy that the world cannot take away.

Conclusion
This has been a hard year. I wish I could say that the church in this country has been at the forefront of being an agent of hope, of service, and of joy. But I do not think it has been. That’s not to say that there has been no light, but it’s not the light that we could have shone on this world.

Too often we have simply joined in the way of the world. We have been more ready to accuse than to listen. We have been paralyzed rather than reaching out. We have given in to despair rather than digging deep into the joy of the Gospel.

Christmas is an opportunity to reset. We can only really serve well when we have joy in our hearts. We are made for joy, and we are made to serve. We should ask, what is keeping us from our joy? What has kept us from joy this year? Why has it? What could we have as a better foundation? Another way to get at this is, when have I not been able to serve? What has kept me from that? That’s where we can dig deep.

Christmas is an opportunity to reset our joy, if we will take it. We can replace the song of 2020 with the song of Mary. We can see that whatever happens to us in the world, the truth is that God fills the hungry with good things. That’s the opportunity of Christmas. It will be a hard fought victory, but with God’s grace, thoughtful reflection, helpful friends, and God’s word, we can learn to sing from the heart, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47).